Category: everyday life

Taking Time off Work to do Work

Boris and I are trying to do several research projects together, and doing this is the best thing to preserve our togetherness when we are physically apart for an extended time. As much as I wanted to do all these things (one was his idea, and two others are mine), I was finding it challenging to squizz this extra work in. I do not know who is bored during quarantine, or who does not know what to do with their time, but it’s not me :). Each weekend I was thinking – I need an extra day! And then I thought – but I have some! Indeed, I checked my PTO balance and found that I have more than five weeks off this year. Yes, I hope to be able to use them to help Anna later in the year, but for the time being, traveling is not an option anyway.

I took Friday off to do some of that work. Granted, there was also some “waste of time” built-in, but I also did substantial writing, and we spent about two hours discussing one of these projects on FaceTime.

I do not know why I didn’t think about taking time off before, but I am glad I did :). Most likely, I will do it again in a week, I feel like it’s a great way to stay sane. Or, and I did turn my slack and work email off for that day!

Watching Movies Together

Since the Siskel Film Center started their “Film Center from your Sofa” programming, I was thinking of how Igor and I can watch movies together, as if we were actually at the movies. And after I figured out how to share the screen on zoom, I knew that that was the answer. The only thing to figure out was what to watch and what time will work.

We settled for the movie “The Booksellers” .

The allure of the printed volume is at the heart of this engaging, Gotham-centered overview of the rare-book trade. One collector compares the relationship of an individual and a book to a love affair, and bibliophile Fran Lebowitz (whose recurrent comments form a loose spine for the film) avows that she could never bring herself to throw a book away. Executive-produced and narrated by Parker Posey, THE BOOKSELLERS explores the rapidly changing (some would say, dying) world of high-end book dealers, book scouts, collectors, and antiquarians. In the post-Amazon, post-Kindle world, are bookstores—and even the book itself—doomed? The disappearance of many beloved bookstores strikes a melancholy note, but the film also takes note of a recent boom in small, independent stores, and bookseller Heather O’Donnell asserts, “The death of the book is highly overrated.” (MR)

From the Siskel Center website

We loved the movie and the idea of watching together (for the price of one :)), although Igor had some sound quality issues. As for me, I had a virtual night out 🙂

Continue reading “Watching Movies Together” →

So Proud of Our School District!

This is our school district – Community Consolidated District 15, and I am so proud of the work of its’ staff! It is not just in Chicago, but in Palatine as well, that lots of children depend on breakfasts and lunches at school. And when schools are closed, the school district delivers!

Deer Grove Forest Preserve

Last Sunday, I went to the Forest Preserve to check my area and just to be there. My friend told me that the parking closest to my house was full in the morning. I had some hope that things will be better in the afternoon, but they weren’t. I turned around and drove to the main parking lot.

It busy as well, but at least there is more space there, so I found a place to park, it just took me longer to walk to my area. There were lots of people walking, running, and biking. Most of the visitors were trying hard to follow the social distancing guidelines, but it was very difficult! I am not ruling out the possibility that these people thought that I have some authority since I was wearing the forest preserve monitor vest :). There was a police car by the entrance, and I was thinking – what if the Cook County officials would decide to close the Forest Preserve after seeing such a crowd?! So far, they didn’t, and I hope that people will continue to try their best.

When I talked to my daughter, she told me that there are cities that opted to close some streets for traffic, to allow more room for people to walk observing the distance. She mentioned that Madison is considering similar measures. I think it would be great if something like that would happen in Chicago – I feel for people who can’t be outside safely!

The Forest Preserve Parking
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Santiago, Italy – a Documentary

One more of many Siskel Center offerings, Santiago, Italy is a documentary about the 1973 events in Chile, and about the chilean people who found their new home in Italy.

After many years of Soviet propaganda, and then after many years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is easy to fall into a habit of thinking that everything that we were told back then was propaganda :). It took me as a surprise to hear that Salvador Allende, indeed, was building socialism in Chile and that he indeed had the broad support of the Chilean people. And that the Communist Party of Italy was, indeed, a serious political power in the ’70s. 

Also, I saw a lot of footage of coup d’état, which I do not remember seen back in the ’70s, and I do not know why especially because I’ve seen some other pieces. It was a very strange feeling. I have already forgotten that the events of 1973 were tragic ones, and this documentary reminded me of them. People are telling about their experience, real people, they pause, they repeat themselves and start over. They are trying to find the right words to describe their feelings; they laugh and cry…

How the State of Illinois is Doing

I am a renter – I pay for mom’s apartment, and I am doing it for the third year now. However, it was for the first time that in the second week of April, I received an email from mom’s property management company: thank you for paying your rent! Igor told me that his property management sent a similar email, which proves one more time the magnitude of the April rent problem. I know that there were lots of petitions for waving the April rent, and then the property owners were trying to secure delays on their mortgage payments… you know the story. The situation in Illinois is not better than in other states. That being said, I am happy that both my sons have jobs at the moment, although with reduced income.

I hear a lot of conversations on the radio on how the current crisis is going to change the world. But when the commentators say “the world,” they mean the United States. Hopes are that some of the measures which are taken as temporal, like guaranteed sick leave, extended unemployment coverage will stay. And that people will be more inclined to consider some form of Universal Health Care, and that the UBI won’t be dismissed on the spot. I share these hopes.

And now I want to talk a little bit more about the state of affairs in Illinois. I’ve already mentioned multiple times that the current presidency made me extremely appreciative of the principles of federalism. I voted for Pritzker in 2018, and never regretted it. I try to make time to listen in to most of his briefings. He is particular, very open, and he genuinely cares about people.

On Sunday, the reporters were asking him the “when” question, and he was explaining over and over that he understands they want a definite answer, and everybody wants it, and he wants it, but there is no way to tell. The reporters kept asking: now, that it’s getting warmer, will he consider opening some parks and golf courses? One reporter was pleading: can we open the Lakefront? Yes, I know, that weekend, it was horrible, I understand, but can we please try one more time? We will be better! Can you please give us another chance?!

Continue reading “How the State of Illinois is Doing” →

Biking to Physical Therapy Early in the Morning

The empty train station. When I saw an empty train passing by, I thought that it looks a lot like in “Divergent”
New procedures in the PT office

Spending Time: a Book Review

I am two months behind on blogging about the books I read, life takes precedence, and there is no time for anything else. However, keeping a promise to myself and others, I am still trying to catch up on my past reading. Below is a short review of the book Spending Time – The Most Valuable Resource, which I read back in February. 

As it often happens, the title and the annotation promised more than the book delivered; however, I do not regret I read it. As my friends now, I take pride in using my time wisely because I always want to do more things than time permits. As a result, I deeply regret that I do not have Hermione’s Time Turner, and continuously search for a substitute of it :).

Each time somebody promises me that they have a secret of getting more done within the same time slot, I am ready to jump in. 

This book does not provide any magic solutions. However, I was very curious about the time dairies which people participating in the research were filling in. I want to know where does my time goes! Once, when my co-worker told us about the Clokiefy app, which she uses to track her time spent on the projects, I decided to try to use it to trace my time in general. 

It didn’t work, and after a little bit over a week, I gave up. It took too much time to record every ten minutes spent on something. The classification of time usage had quickly become very complicated, and I was having a hard time recording activities that I was doing in parallel with others. But it looks like the time dairies mentioned in that book worked perfectly. I would love to be called to participate in such research! 

One particular observation caught my attention. The author was saying that the more money a person makes, the more activities are becoming available (yes, that was “before the war”). At the same time, a person does not have time to participate in these activities because… well, because they spend all their time working! 

At that time, I thought that there is a lot of wisdom in that statement, but now I am not sure. The quarantine cut all my massive volunteering work, on all cultural events, which were either canceled or moved online. And still, I feel like I need twice more time to do all the things I want to do. So it looks like it is something else :).

I know that I do not have time to email, or call, or to FaceTime many of my friends, and I often find myself talking to them in my mind, while I am doing something else. I do not have enough time to document what’s going on in the world these days. And I do not have enough time to do all the professional – non-work things. I will keep trying 🙂

How is My Mom

Many people are asking me how my mom is doing. She is doing great, taking into account her age and other circumstances.

However, because she firmly believes that she can’t understand English, mom does not watch TV, and she does not read anything in English on the internet. At the times when things started to be bad here, and I started to realize what is coming ahead, she was clueless – in Russia, the virus “did not exist” at that time. And she was asking me why I worry so much. I was trying to explain to her that the situation is bad and getting worse, but since she didn’t receive any proof from Russia, she didn’t take it in. I remember that when I came to visit her two days later, after we had that first conversation, she started to ask me, “whether I feel better that day.”

On the one hand, I didn’t want to make her worry; on the other hand, I needed her to understand the severity of the situation and to be cautious. And then, all of a sudden, it was officially announced in Russia that the virus exists. And then she finally started to worry. Just in time, when things began to be more stable here, not better, but we’ve adjusted to the situation.

Then she started to tell me what she read about the virus on the Russian internet. Most of the time, I listen quietly to what she has read on the Russian internet and not comment, but in the situation when she can make bad choices based on what she read on the Russian internet, I had to interfere. She was very upset and told me that I think that everything is better in America :). I decided to be smarter next time, and try to let her talk as much as she needs. Then I tell her that while she lives in Illinois, she has to follow the orders of our governor, and that’s all that should matter for her.
She was still keeping telling me what she read in Russian. It was funny that she mentioned that “people create the panic,” and I told her – Mom, don’t worry, there is plenty of food in the stores, she replied: yes, Putin told that there is plenty of food! I didn’t comment on it.

Then, when Russia went into quarantine, her Russian friends started to ask her in emails: so, you are going out for the walks? Is it allowed? Won’t you be punished if you go outside? The also anxiously asked her whether there is food in the stores. As a result, about a week ago she told me: it looks like in Russia they sometimes publish wrong things about America! Same as here about Russia! I decided it was good enough 🙂

She is complaining that she has nobody to socialize with and that previously she was going out with me, and visiting my friends and so on. I am keeping telling her that she has to wait.
Yesterday, I filed her short-form tax returns for her so that she could receive a stimulus payment. She didn’t think she is eligible, but I told her she is. I think it will be great when she receives it!

Health Updates

It’s hard for me to tell whether the problems with my back have returned because I am working from home, or they just returned – after all, last spring, the situation was the same. It started to get worse when it should have become better. This time, it is all related to walking. Standing is fine, but walking started to be more and more painful again. On the one hand, it could be because I do not walk with my backpack anymore (it helps me to stay in balance); on the other hand – it still shouldn’t have been like this.

I do not like to go at length about “how exactly I feel unwell,” so I will stop here. I still had some leftovers from the last year’s prescription, but I had to use it often recently and was running out of it. I was not sure whether the orthopedics is considered essential, but I was hoping that I could get a prescription refill.

When I called the doctor’s office, they told me that they are open and that if I am comfortable with it, they would rather see me in person.

I went there last Friday; there was almost nobody in the waiting area, and I didn’t wait at all. They took the Xrays, and it looks like all the same problems I had a year ago, which does not go away, and which was not supposed to go away.

So I started everything again, as last spring: a steroid pack, already done, which, as usual, caused a short-term relief. On Wednesday, I started physical therapy. My usual place is in business, which means I do not need to travel far. Fortunately, I got my favorite therapist, who has scoliosis herself. Last year, she showed me a lot of great exercises which help me a lot, if done consistently. I already had two sessions with her and will continue for two more weeks. They all wear masks, and I wear a mask when I come in. They also have a box of disposable gloves, so when a patient needs to get on an elliptical or to do some other exercises, they put the gloves on. They also limited the number of patients they treat simultaneously.

Last week, when I was at the doctor, he said I might need steroid shots (which I refused the previous year), and that he hopes I won’t need another surgery. I hope so, too! It’s frustrating that I do not quite understand what causes the problem. All these “narrow exits” do not bear any meaning to me, and I can’t consider steroid shots being treatment, it’s just pain management.
Most likely (and hopefully), I will feel better in a couple of weeks, but most likely, it won’t be permanent. It might become my seasonal activity :).